POETRY: PERCEPTION OF LIFE

Grace Note

The sound of the grace note

Escaping from the dark interior of the ancient public house

Acoustic confirmation of the quality of the musicians within

An unexpected centre of excellence

Mellow tones and local beer

A frozen heart is moved

The Cake

The birthday was significant
The person was very significant
Therefore the cake was highly significant

Essentially a chemical dance of familiar ingredients
Blended together
To make an additional masterpiece on the day

One ate the other.

Up

My Mate Will

I saw Shakespeare in the pub and asked him about his place in English literacy.

He was incredibly self effacing and reminded me that at the time he was considered hot stuff and courted by the rich and royalty.
But it's only now that we consider him a fundamental part of scholarly history.

A point well made.

We had a long chat about the porter in Macbeth and how his soliloquy provides a comic foil to the tension at the opening of Act two, scene three.

Then he had to leg it back to his cottage.

Just as he is about to leave
I pitched an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in two cities, one in an undersea world and the other on the moon

He raised an eyebrow and then shrugged before waving goodbye.

Always good company Will.

Ten Years

Sitting

Thoughts pecking round my feet

The complexity of life

A maze in the mind

And a tension of the soul

Undulatory momentum carried me forward for so long

Heavy on the heart at times

Fatigue, a familiar foe

Each step slowed by the weight of office

A sense of desiccation, with little left to give

But history steps up to present the successes

The battles hard won and the future assured

Cementing of friendships and being part of the journey of others

Sweet and complicated

But blissfully fulfilling

Gone and never to return and I miss it already.